GAYOT's Blog

Oysters and Much More at Joe’s in Venice

on March 26th, 2010

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26

Mar

Chef Joe Miller & Maître Ecailler Christophe Happillon at Joe's restaurant

by Sophie Gayot

After nearly twenty successful years, Joe’s restaurant in Venice can certainly be considered a Los Angeles classic. As we’ve have been saying for a long time, chef Joe Miller and his team, chef de cuisine Kristopher Tominaga and sous-chef Phil Pretty, are especially adept in preparing seafood dishes.

But some of the ocean’s pleasures need no cooking. Every Friday night, Maître Écailler Christophe Happillon takes over part of the bar to open oysters for appreciative patrons ($17 for 6, $30 for 12). Happillon brings three different kinds, usually Carlsbad Lunas, British Columbia Fanny Bay and Baja California Endless Summer. He is an expert in explaining the differences between the types served.

The talented kitchen does prepare mignonette and cocktail sauce to season the oysters, but Happillon’s offerings are so fresh and tasty that I recommend that you eat them unadorned.

You can click on each photo to enlarge to see dishes from Joe’s restaurant menu. All photos by Sophie Gayot.

Maître Écailler Christophe Happillon

Shucking an oyster

Oyster on the half shell

Christophe Happillon getting the oyster table ready

The oysters at your table

Home-made charcuterie, from the bar menu

Pan-seared day boat scallops with honey date purée, quinoa, bacon tuile, frisee & radish salad and Sangiovese gastrique

Crisp black cod with shitake mushrooms, mizuna lettuce, braised oxtail and dashi broth

Slow roasted Tasmanian salmon with hedgehog mushrooms, pearl onions and smoked white bean puree

Porcini mushroom ravioli with wild mushrooms, parmesan broth and Italian parsley

Bisquits & pork belly with foie gras and truffle gravy

Peppered New York steak, quail egg, grits soubise, wilted spinach and herb emulsion

Prime pork tenderloin crepinette with wild mushrooms, roasted garlic, potato purée and roasted garlic jus

Citrus vanilla sugar doughnut with coffee ice cream

Pomegranate panacotta in citrus soup

Chef Joe Miller & Maître Ecailler Christophe Happillon at Joe’s restaurant

 

 

4 Comments »

1. 

   C’est bon….good, very good.
   All the Guys (and Girls) must eat the oysters.
   Better than French oysters.

   Comment by anthony — March 26, 2010 @ 4:22 pm

2. [...] world boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard, whose Pacific Palisades house hosted the event. Food-wise, Christophe Happillon was the most popular with his Luna oysters from Carlsbad. The line to sample the dish was very [...]

   Pingback by GAYOT’s Blog A Punchy Evening — June 15, 2010 @ 2:43 pm

3. [...] mixologists, Mat Greis (Church & State), Jennifer Zerboni (Joe’s Restaurant), Eugene Shaw or Tim Logan (Comme Ca) and Lacey Murillo (The Raymond Restaurant) will have to [...]

   Pingback by Raising the Bar #4 | GAYOT's Blog — November 1, 2010 @ 10:56 am

4. [...] Club Culinaire of French Cuisine. So I missed the food of Church & State, French Market Café, Joe’s, K-ZO, La Cachette Bistro. Lilly’s French Café & Bar, Maison Akira, Maison Richard, [...]

   Pingback by COLCOA 2011 Opening Night Bertrand Blier — April 12, 2011 @ 6:05 pm

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